(American Greatness)—Should we say please and thank you to Siri and Alexa?
Sure, it sounds a little nutty to extend courtesy to machines. We don’t say job well done to our dishwashers, robot vacuums, sprinklers, and all the other gadgets that make our lives easier.
But Siri, Alexa, and all the other interactive devices we are steadily attaching ourselves to are radically different – they perform their labors with a smile. They captivate and engage us.
This augurs a profound change in human history. For millennia, technology bolstered and freed the human body. Wheels allowed us to move faster; arrows helped us vanquish mighty beasts. More recently, railroads, cars, planes, telephones, and computers have enabled us to overcome almost all our physical limitations, while household appliances have largely released us from menial labor. Set it and forget it.
As Duke Professor Adrian Bejan has observed, these revolutionary breakthroughs have already transformed us into something altogether new and different: a “human/machine species.” It is now almost impossible for people in the developed world to imagine who we are apart from the devices that are not just tools, like our ancestors’ sharpened stones, but appendages. Look at your hand and you’re likely to see a phone.
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